A Surreal Effect On A Sunday Morning !

A surreal effect on the skylines of mumbai on a sunday morning. A beautiful rainbow formed with dark clouds forming in the background and rain showers slowly sweeping in from a far distance, hitting the effects and slowly erasing away the rainbow that became so very prominent when the clouds darkened. This lasted for less that 5 minutes. Showers took away the rainbow and the clouds cleared out..making it sunny all the way again.

I am not sure if i was able to capture, the real effects the sky had with my camera....but still just to share with my reader something i captured from my 7 th floor balcony in a hurry before the effects faded away. Was not able to capture the whole rainbow in one frame....but then could see the start and end of it...and maybe i should go looking for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow :)

Have a great weekend !

Neichoru / Ghee Rice

Neichoru, which means rice flavoured with ghee and spices that gives a special aroma to this simple rice preparation. Mostly prepared for special occasions to accompany with rich gravy curries like fish mollee, chicken or mutton stew or any meat gravy preparations.

Ingredients

2 cups - Basmati rice
4 cups - Water
1 - Onion, thinly sliced
4 - cloves
2 inch long - Cinnamon
4 tbsp - Ghee
Salt to taste

Garnishing

2 - Onions, thinly sliced
Few golden raisins
Few cashew nuts

Method

1 ) Wash rice and drain very well.

2 ) In a deep heavy bottom utensil, heat ghee, add cinnamon and cloves. Fry for a few seconds, then add onion and fry till onion is translucent. Now add the drained rice and on simmer, fry the rice well in ghee, till you can hear ' tick tick ' sound.

3 ) Meanwhile in another utensil, place 4 cups water on stove and bring to a boil and switch off the stove. Now carefully, with stove on simmer, pour water into the rice utensil. Add salt to taste and stir once. Close with a tight lid and cook on simmer for 5 minutes. Once the rice has absorbed all the water and is cooked, switch off the stove. Do not open the lid now. Keep it closed for 10 to 15 minutes. Then open the lid and gently stir the rice.

4 ) To garnish - Heat 3 to 4 tbsp ghee, simmer then add raisins and fry till raisins plump up. Drain off from the ghee and set aside. Now add cashew nuts and fry, till cashews turns lightly brown. Drain and set aside along with raisins. Now add onion, sprinkle little sugar on top, to speed up onion caramelising. Fry till onion turns golden brown. Drain and set aside.

5 ) Mix little of the fried onion, cashew and raisin with the rice and set aside some to garnish finally on top of the rice, when serving. Serve rice on a platter, then on top of the rice, garnish with fried onion, cashew and raisins.

Serve hot with any meat gravy preparation. I served ghee rice with fish mollee, pappadam and raita.

Kuthappam /Muttayappam / Ottayappam / Mutta Pathiri

Back in Kozhikode / Calicut, this appam is called kuthappam, since this appam has a lot of holes formed on its upper surface. Most probably this appam must have a different name in other parts of kerala. Appam chatty, a clay pot (manchatty) is used to make this appam. Other alternative is to use a non-stick pan with a tight lid.

Ingredients

1 cup - Maida / All purpose flour

1 cup - Rice flour

1 - Egg

3/4 cup - Thick coconut milk

A pinch of baking soda

Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Shift maida, rice flour and baking soda along with salt. Beat egg very well and make it frothy. Add to the flours and mix well. Pour coconut milk, little at a time and make a batter which has a consistency, which is a bit lighter than idli batter. Not too loose like dosa batter, nor too thick like idli batter. Rather in between dosa and idli batter consistency. Add water if necessary to get the right consistency.Stir the batter well, so that some air bubbles form in the batter. Let the batter rest for ten minutes. Before preparing the appam, stir the batter once again well.

2 ) Heat a manchatty or a non-stick pan on medium high heat. Grease a cloth with oil and wipe the manchatty or the non-stick pan with this cloth. Using a big ladle, take batter in the ladle and pour into the chatty or non-stick pan. Do not stir the pan or chatty. Close with a tight lid and cook on very low heat. Appam will start forming holes on the top surface and get cooked in the steam. Once the appam is fully cooked, take the appam out of the pan and transfer to a serving plate. Continue making more appam in the similar way with rest of the batter. Just keep in mind to heat the manchatty on high before pouring batter and then immediately lower heat to very low simmer, after closing with lid. The high heat will help in forming the holes.

To serve - you can have this appam with sweetened coconut milk, poured on top of the appam. So make fresh coconut milk extract, add sugar and sweeten. Otherwise you can have this appam with any meat curry.

Broken Wheat / Lapsi Upma

Upma !! oh nooo.. that's what i used to say as a kid, whenever upma was served for breakfast. Times have changed and now i have acquired a taste and enjoy having upma with some steamed ripe plantains. But then i like upma made with coarsely ground rawa and not the fine semolina /rawa. I think there lies the difference in taste. I have used lapsi rawa ( that's the name given on the packet for this coarsely ground rawa, i used. )

Ingredients

2 cup - Broken wheat / Dalia

2 cups - Water

2 - Red onion Or 10 - big shallots

5 - Green chilies

1" to 2'' piece - Ginger, grated

2 - Tomato, chopped

Seasoning

2 tsp - Mustard seeds

2 tsp - Urad dal

2 - Dry whole red chili

3 to 4 sprigs- Curry leaves

Ghee or any other cooking oil

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a kadai / wok, add mustard seeds, urad dal and crackle mustard. Then add red chili, curry leaves and fry for a second. Then add onion, green chili, ginger and fry for few seconds. Then add tomato, fry for a few seconds. Then add rawa and fry for one to two minutes on slow flame.

2 ) Add 2 cups water to the kadai, close with tight lid and cook on very slow flame. Cook for 5 minutes. Open lid and stir well. Lastly add a little ghee on top and stir in well.

Serve hot for breakfast with steamed ripe & sweet plantain and if you like pappad.

Banana Bajji

Rainy days are here and the crave was to have some hot and crispy bajji for evening tea with my family. There was some raw banana's in the fridge and we chose to make bajji with it. It's a easy snack to make, and right for a rainy day tea or coffee.

Ingredients

3 - Unripe raw banana, washed
2 cups - Besan powder, shifted
1 tbsp - Rice flour
1.5 tsp - Red chili powder or to taste
3 to 4 big flakes - Garlic, crushed and finely grated
1/2 tsp - Hing powder
1 tbsp - Ghee
Salt to taste
Peanut oil or sunflower

Method

1 ) Make a thick batter by mixing besan, rice flour, chili powder, garlic, hing, ghee, salt to taste along with enough water.

2 ) Cut banana into thin slices longitudinally. Discard the skin on both edges of the banana, if you do not prefer the skin.

3 ) Heat oil in a kadai or wok. Dip and coat each banana slice well with the batter and deep fry in medium hot oil till golden brown in color. Oil should be hot enough before sliding in the slices. Drain out of the oil and place in a platter to serve.

Serve hot as is or with coconut chutney.

Ari + Dates Unda

A mixture of ingredients, Ari meaning rice in Malayalam, dates, peanut, coconut, dry ginger, cardamom and sweetened with jaggery makes this unda, meaning a ball or a laddoo. Very filling snack you can make for having with your evening tea.

Ingredients

1/2 kilo - Red boiled rice (matta)
1/2 kilo - Roasted peanuts or roasted cashewnuts
1/2 kilo - Jaggery
1/2 kilo - Dates, chopped to small pieces
50 grams / 2 big pieces - Dry ginger
10 - Green cardamoms
1 whole - Coconut, grated
A pinch of salt

Method

1 ) First wash rice well and drain. Drain water completely till the grains are completely dry. In a heavy bottom kadai / wok, add rice, dry ginger, cardamom and dry roast on a slow flame. Rice grains will start crackling, turn a light brown color and slightly puffed. Take off the stove and cool.

2 ) Take 2 cups water and heat to make jaggery syrup. Add jaggery and melt completely. Strain to take off any impurities. Keep back on stove add dates and boil well till the dates get mashed a bit.Then add grated coconut, a pinch of salt and boil for a few seconds. Switch off the stove.

3 ) Powder the dry roasted rice, dry ginger, cardamom to fine powder. Then powder roasted peanuts to fine powder. Mix both the powders well and blend in.

4 ) Now add the powders to the prepared jaggery syrup little by little and mix well with a big spoon. Let the mixture cool for a while. While it is still slightly warm, start making round balls taking little mixture at a time.

Serve and have as a evening snack. You can also mash a banana and mix with one ari unda and have.

For storing suggestion - Can be kept for a day outside, then refrigerate.

Ari Unda without dates

1 kilo  Or 4 cups - Matta, red boiled rice
1/2 kilo - Groundnut, roasted
1 kilo - Jaggery, make syrup with 2 cup water
10 to 15 - Green cardamom, powdered
50 gm - Dry ginger
1 whole - Coconut, grated
A big pinch - Salt

Method - The process is as given above. Just do not add dates, or do the steps with dates.

Black Pepper Chicken

I go visiting my mom's kitchen and there she is making a spicy pepper chicken, which is loaded with black pepper powder. So you get a rich peppery taste for the chicken and i loved having this spicy pepper chicken with roti /chapati.

Ingredients

2 kilo - Chicken, cut to small pieces

To marinate

4 to 5 tsp - Black pepper powder
2 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Other ingredients

1 cups - Small onions / shallots, chopped
1 tsp - Black pepper powder
8 to 10 - Green chilies, chopped
1'' piece - Ginger
4 to 5 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Mix black pepper powder, turmeric, salt with little water and apply on the chicken pieces. Marinate for 1/2 hours.

2 ) Transfer chicken to a pan and cook on low flame, covered with a lid. Chicken will give out water, so cook in that water till chicken is fully cooked and tender. Dry out all excess water once the chicken is cooked.

3 ) Heat 3 tbsp of coconut oil in another big pan, add black pepper powder, fry for few seconds, then add green chili, curry leaves, ginger and fry for a minute. Now add onion and fry till onion is lightly browned. Add cooked chicken pieces, add more oil, fry very well till the pieces are browned well and you get a well browned chicken.

Serve with roti.

This is for people who love spicy food !

Unakka Chemmeen Or Fresh Prawns Curry

Try this curry with dried shrimps or with fresh prawns. Cooked with unripe mangoes, which imparts tanginess to the curry, you will have to choose some real sour mangoes. Depending on the sourness of the mango, add one or more mangoes to get the desired tanginess for the curry.

Ingredients

2 cups – Dried shrimps or fresh prawns
1 or 2 medium size – Unripe sour mango, cut to pieces
2 tsp – red chili powder
½ tsp – Turmeric powder
½ tsp – Coriander powder
4 – Green chilies
½ inch piece – Ginger, grated
5 big – Shallots, diced
3 to 4 sprigs – Curry leaves
Salt to taste

Grind to a smooth paste

1 and ¾ cup to 2 cup – Freshly grated coconut

Seasoning

6 big – Shallots, diced
Coconut oil

Method

1 ) Wash dried shrimp well. Transfer to a pot or pan to cook in. Add mango, red chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, green chili, ginger, shallots, curry leaves and salt to taste. To this add 2 to 2.5 cups of water and place on stove. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook till shrimps and mango are cooked well and most of the water is used up.

2 ) Meanwhile, grind coconut to a smooth paste with water. Add this to the cooked shrimp. Add little more water to get a semi thick gravy consistency. Bring to a boil, lower heat and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Check salt to taste. Turn off the stove.

3 ) For seasoning, heat coconut oil in another pan, add diced shallots and brown it on lower heat. Add the seasoning on to the curry.

Serve with hot steamed rice.


Tip : If mango is not sour enough, add a piece of kudampuli , while cooking the dry Shrimp.

2 ) When cooking with fresh prawns, in the initial cooking with mango, you don't need 2 to 2.5 cups water to cook prawns. Use 1 or 1.5 cups of water to cook.

Vazhapoo / Banana Flower Thoran

I had no idea that banana flower could be cooked and is edible until the day i tasted this thoran cooked with it. It tasted so good and i wanted to have more of it. Deep purple in color with shades of pink to it, this flower's outer layers are discarded until you get a inner layer that does not have this deep color. Rather a pale colored inner layer is used for cooking. Discard till you reach that layer, then chop the flower in the center into two parts and then chop into small pieces. Immediately immerse chopped pieces in water, in which a little turmeric powder has been added. Wash well before using for cooking. keep immersed in water till you have to cook.

Ingredients

2 – Banana flower
1 cup – Chana dal
½ cup – Shallots chopped
½ cup – Freshly grated coconut
1.5 tsp to 2 tsp – Crushed chili flakes
½ tsp – Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Seasoning

2 tsp – Mustard seeds
3 to 4 sprigs – Curry leaves.
Coconut oil

Method

1 ) Wash chana dal and soak in enough water for one hour. Then in little water cook chana dal till it is fully cooked, but should not get mashed up. Add salt to taste. Check dal while cooking, so that it doesn't get over cooked. Switch off stove and drain off excess water, if any.

2 ) Heat a pan with little coconut oil, add mustard seeds and pop it. Then add shallots, curry leaves and fry till shallots are very lightly browned. Now add chili flakes, turmeric powder and fry for a few seconds. Then add coconut and fry for a minute.

3 ) Squeeze out all the water from the banana flower and add to the pan. Stir and mix in well. Cook on low heat till the flower is cooked, stirring in between. Add salt to taste. Once the flower has cooked, add chana dal and mix in. On low heat cook stirring occasionally, till ingredients are mixed well and cooked. Adjust salt to taste. Turn off the stove and serve.

Serve hot with roti or steamed rice.

Mani Puttu

Kerala culinary is so intertwined with the use of coconut in its cooking. This palaharam (snack) is so rich with coconut, were rice flour and coconut compliments each other to make a delicious and a filling snack.

Ingredients

2 cups- lightly roasted rice flour
1 cup – finely grated fresh coconut
1 and ¾ cup – Water
¾ tsp – Salt
1.5 to 2 cup – Thick coconut milk
Sugar to taste

Method

1 ) Combine grated coconut, water and salt in an utensil. Place on stove and just bring to a boil. Turn off the stove.

2 ) Add rice flour to a mixing bowl, pour the hot water mixture slowly on the rice flour and stir well with a spoon to make a dough. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Then knead the dough. To test if the dough is ready to make small balls out of it. Take a little dough and roll on the palm and if it rolls out well without sticking, dough is ready to be rolled to small balls. Otherwise if it is sticky add little more rice flour, to get the desired proportion.

3 ) Take little dough at a time and make small balls out of it. You can make elongated shape too. Place the shaped dough in a plate. You can pile up dough balls on one another. It will not stick.

4 ) Use a steamer to steam or a pressure cooker. In a pressure cooker place the plate and steam without the placing the weight. Steam for 15 to 20 minutes.

5 ) Meanwhile keep coconut milk ready, sweetened with sugar. Take the steamed dumplings out and immediately immerse in coconut milk. Keep soaked for 15 minutes.

Serve mani puttu along with coconut milk.

Welcoming a brand New Year 2009

Wishing all my readers a very happy and prosperous new year! Let's usher in the new year with good health and a bountiful year ahead with prosperity and good wishes.

Koorkka Mezhukkupuratti / Stir Fry

This tuber produce is known as koorkka in Malayalam and if I am not wrong, known as Chinese potato that is available in asian stores. Now a days you get to see bigger sized koorkka, that are grown with fertilizers to make them bigger. Originally they were small in size and small ones tend to me more tasty.

Cleaning koorkka is bit tedious, if you have to clean a whole lot of them. After a long time, being back in India, I get to prepare some fresh koorkka. I had a bag full of koorkka to clean, which was covered with dirt. So I rinse off the dirt and just then get to know from my MIL that, putting these in a gunny bag, tying the bag loosely, then beat or toss the bag on a hard surface gently will help remove the skin off. Which really makes the hard part of cleaning so easy.

You don’t have to rinse the koorkka, if you are going to use gunny bag. Put it in dry. Take tossed koorkka out of the gunny bag and rinse off the dirt well. Scrap off any skin remaining on the koorkka.

Soak the cleaned koorkka in water, since oxidization will turn the koorkka brown. Another thing to keep in mind when cleaning koorkka is to use a gloves to avoid hands getting strained. Now this is a very simple recipe and the end result is a delicious koorkka mezhukkupuratti / stir fry.

Ingredients

4 cups – Koorkka, cleaned ( about 1 kilo )
2 tbsp - Garlic, coarsely crushed ( about 15 big flakes )
½ cup – Shallots, coarsely crushed
1 tbsp - Red chili flakes
¼ tsp – Turmeric powder
2.5 cup – Water
Salt to taste

Seasoning

1.5 to 2 tsp – Mustard seeds
3 to 4 sprigs – Curry leaves
3 tbsp – Coconut oil

Method

1 ) Quarter koorkka to small pieces. Use a mortar and pestle to crush garlic and shallots. Or chop very finely.

2 ) Heat a kadai or wok with 3 tbsp coconut oil, on medium heat. Add mustard seeds and pop it. Then add shallots, curry leaves and fry lightly for a second. Then add garlic and fry lightly just till garlic looses the raw smell. Don’t brown the garlic. Then add turmeric powder and chili flakes. Stir and fry till you get a good aroma of the powders fried on a low flame. Add salt to taste and stir in.

3 ) Add koorkka stir and mix in well. On medium heat, stir and fry for 2 to 3 minutes, so that the spices are infused into the koorkka. Then add 2.5 cups of water and bring to a boil. Lower the flame to the minimum. Cover with a tight lid and cook till koorkka is cooked and soft. Check in between to see if the koorkka is well cooked and soft. Once soft, take off the lid and dry off any excess water on high flame.

Serve as a side dish with rice or roti.

Nellikka Achar / Pickled Gooseberries

Indian gooseberry know as nellikka in malayalam, amala in hindi has many health benefits. Sour in taste, this fruit is used fresh and dried for different things.

Have Gooseberries, if you have vitamin C deficiency, like cold, bleeding gum etc for a natural cure, since gooseberry is rich in vitamin C. Also it’s very good for people who have diabetics. Taking gooseberries daily will reduce diabetics. Gooseberries are dried and used as a main ingredient in ayurvedic preparations to make medicines as it provides remedy to many diseases.With all its benefits, it will be a good thing to include gooseberries in our daily diet. Pickling gooseberries works out well. Uppillitta nellikka (gooseberries soaked in salted water for a duration of time) is a popular way of pickling in kerala. These salted gooseberries can then be used to make chammanthi or you can eat these salted gooseberries as is.

Ingredients
15 big size - Nellikka / Amala / Gooseberries
2 tbsp – Red chili powder
¼ tsp – Fenugreek powder / methi / uluva
¼ tsp – Hing powder / Asafetida
1 tsp – Mustard seed
3 to 4 sprigs – Curry leaves, washed and dried well.
4 to 5 tbsp – Sesame oil
3 tsp – Salt or to taste

Method
1 ) Powder the mustard seeds. Wash gooseberries well, then wipe dry off any water. Cut gooseberries to small pieces.

2 ) Heat a kadai or pan with 2 tbsp of oil on medium low heat. Add the cut gooseberry pieces, 1 tsp salt and fry the pieces till pieces turn soft, which will take 2 to 3 minutes. Once the pieces are soft, transfer the pieces to another utensil and set aside.

3 ) Add 2 to 3 tbsp oil into the pan and heat the pan on low flame. Add curry leaves and fry the leaves crisp, then add red chili powder, fenugreek powder, mustard powder, hing powder, one after the other. Fry the powders in the oil, till you get a good aroma of the powders. But take care not to burn it.

4 ) Add fried gooseberry pieces to this masala , 2 tsp of salt or to taste, stir and mix well. Coat the pieces well with the masala. Take off the stove and cool.

Use a sterilized bottle to store this pickle in. Bottle should be wiped well off any water in it. Once the pickle has cooled off, transfer pickle into the sterilized bottle. Can keep the pickle outside for two to three days then refrigerate.Do shake the bottle to coat the pieces with masala and oil each time you take it.

I was so eager to taste this pickle, that i tasted the pickle, after an hour of making it. By then the masala had settled in a bit on the pieces and tasted like an instant pickle.